AIM HIGH

Iron defender Eddie Nolan is very encouraged by the way pre-season is going so far.

The full-back is happy with the way training is going and believes that he is starting to get sharper as he and the rest of the club look ahead to the big kick-off against Swindon Town on 9 August.

"It’s been good; the new lads are settling in well, training has been going really well and I’m starting to build up my fitness now," he told The Iron Player.

Nolan also believes that the fact that the majority of the squad played together last season is something that is always a big help in pre-season but believes that the new signings that the club have made have settled in well.

He added: "It’s not always easy when you get seven or eight new players in, it can sometimes take a while for them to settle but they’ve have settled in well, they’re nice lads and the rest of the lads have taken well to them."

Asked about how pre-season has gone thus far, Nolan said that it would have been nice for the team to have scored more goals but that match fitness was the priority.

He said: "You’d always like to win by a bit of a margin and knock in a few goals but it’s all about fitness leading up to that first game of the season so that’s the main aim."

When it comes to having personal aims for the upcoming campaign, the Irishman doesn’t see any difference between this and the previous season for himself.

He explained: "They’re the same as last season, to play as many games as I can, do as well as I can and another promotion would be nice."

He also believes that expectations amongst the squad should be to finish as high as possible and hopes that the team can take their promotion form from last season and carry it over to this one.

He continued: "We definitely want to aim as high as we can, we’re bringing a winning mentality from last season into this season and who knows, hopefully a top half finish at the minimum."

Nolan also admitted that he now wants to get the season underway after being back in training for several weeks now but noted that there was still work to be done before the opening game of the season.

He said: "Definitely, pre-season always drags, you just wanna get going and it’s been three weeks now so yeah, dying to go but there’s still a lot of hard work to be done between now and then."